Tuesday, July 10, 2018

Univision Is Hurting

Already battered by two failed attempts at an initial public offering and a resurgent rival in Telemundo, the five private equity owners of the once-dominant Spanish language broadcaster are now faced with a brutal carriage dispute and a forecast that revenue next year will decline 4 percent — its largest downturn ever, The NYPost reports.

A leading Univision lender said he is forecasting a 4 percent revenue drop in 2019 — after being flat this year.

The decline is expected to put more pressure on the heavily indebted media company.

The Big Apple-based company is weighing the sale of Fusion Media Group, which includes Gizmodo and Deadspin.

The unit, cobbled together in separate purchases in 2016, was supposed to be Univision’s growth engine.

Meanwhile, as the five PE owners try to sort out the mess, rival Telemundo, owned by Comcast’s NBCUniversal, is enjoying growing prime-time ratings — thanks in large part to new, saucier novelas that are appealing to a younger audience.

Telemundo, which once trailed Univision in the ratings game by a wide margin, won the coveted 18-to-49 demo during prime time for the week of June 18-24, according to Nielsen — averaging a 0.5 rating to Univision’s 0.4.